Culture

To many, April 20 is just another workday. But to marijuana enthusiasts around the globe, 4/20 is a holy day, one to be considered above all others as a time to celebrate -- and consume -- cannabis.

The counterculture holiday doesn’t appear on any official calendar, but it’s pretty popular all the same. The origins of 4/20, aka National Weed Day, can be traced to Northern California where, in the 1970s, pot smokers began using the code “420” – the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress – as a reference to toking up.

Tips for the Prevention and Treatment of Stretching in Cannabis Growth

Growing marijuana plants indoors presents a whole plethora of potential benefits. It gives you the freedom to cultivate strains and plants that would never thrive outdoors. It gives you the chance to learn about the fundamentals of plant growth, and offers you finely tuned control over those same fundamentals. You are the one in charge of the amount of nutrients, water, and light your plants receive. Plus, it gives you a hobby that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a television screen or computer monitor, a rarity in today’s world of intense media addiction.

There are some drawbacks to indoor growing, of course. It requires a lot of electricity. You’ll be producing a lot of extra heat, noise, and some really potent smells. That’s not even taking space into consideration. Do plenty of research before you begin— you want to know what you’re getting into. One of the most common issues with indoor cultivation is watching your plant grow and grow, stretching up and out and eating up all the space in your grow room. For the most part, this is unavoidable, but there are a couple steps you can take to help minimize the stretching.

Grow bushy marijuana plants

To maximize the space you’re using, you’ll want to keep your plants as dense and bushy as possible. This can be accomplished through two different practices. You’ll want to both minimize the distance between nodes and also promote lateral growth. The distance between the nodes essentially just means the distance between the base of the leaf stems on a plant. The greater the distance between the leaves, the more slender and spindly a plant will appear. Make sure to download my free marijuana grow bible at this link and grow like a pro!

Believe it or not, you don’t want spindly plants. If they are tall and thin, its unlikely that they will be able to support the heavy buds that you’re hoping for. You’ll need to expend extra effort to support the plant, and you’ll risk losing your hard-earned buds if any of the stems snap. Not only that, but a stretched plant can easily grow too close to the grow lights. This can cause a whole host of issues: the intense exposure can burn the top of your plants, and lower leaves will receive significantly less light. All of these things will damage the health of your plant, and that means a reduced yield.

As in all things, a preventative approach is best, but if you’re already suffering from stretched plants, there may be able to salvage some of the issues by doing some careful pruning on your plants. Don’t give up! “Careful” is the name of the game when it comes to pruning. In fact, a lot of professional growers will suggest avoiding pruning entirely. Pruning plants before they mature can affect the flow of various hormones within the plant, including auxins. Auxins are part of the group of hormones that coordinate and organize the way a plant grows. If you can learn to manage and redistribute these hormones away from the main trunk and towards the lateral stems, you’ll have a good way of slowing the upward growth of the plant and forcing it to grow outwards.

The title doesn’t lie. This week, Congress officially signed a bill that would end the federal government’s harassment of medical marijuana dispensaries and patients across the US. With 1,603 pages, the federal spending measure marks the first time that Congress has approved a nationally significant legislation that is backed by the legalization advocates. This signals the end of almost two decades of tension between the states that want to push forward with marijuana and the federal government, which says that it’s not okay.

Even though the Obama administration said last year that they would refrain from raiding places compliant with state laws, the raid numbers have never been higher. By signing this bill, President Obama (who has said that he plans to sign the bill this week) will make this policy an official law. Medical marijuana patients will be safe from federal prosecution. Another important realization that comes with this bill’s passing is the fact that there seem to be Republicans that are backing the individual will of the states, letting the individual cities and towns to orchestrate their own systems.

“This is a victory for so many,” said Republican Rep Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, who was the measure’s co-author. He also said that this is “the first time in decades that the federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana.” As of righter now, there are 32 states and Washington DC that have legalized pot or ingredients of the plant in order to treat illnesses. That’s far more than half, closing in on the final states. The movement began far back in the 1990s and has been steadily gaining momentum for years, exploding over social media and mainstream culture in the last five or so years.

For many years, Congress has rejected the pleas of the states to govern their own marijuana laws. With this measure being passed, the federal government will be forbidden from using any of it’s resources to impede state medical marijuana laws. Having been rejected six times, the passing of this bill is a relief to activists everywhere. Washington DC legalized medical marijuana back in 1998 but Congress blocked the law for 11 years before allowing it to officially be implemented.

“The war on medical marijuana is over,” said Bill Piper, a lobbyist with the Drug Policy Alliance. “Now the fight moves on to legalization of all marijuana. This is the strongest signal we have received from Congress that the politics have really shifted. Congress has been slow to catch up with the states and American people, but it is catching up."

As stoners, we know how awesome video games are. Running around collecting coins, shooting bad guys, or solving puzzles can be really fun. But if you’re really low on funds and can’t afford a gaming system, you’re pretty out of luck. This couple from Chadron, Nebraska didn’t think that way when they traded some cannabis and magic mushrooms for an Xbox after answering an online ad for the gaming system.

Thirty year old Christopher Ames and twenty six year old Casandra Agnes were both arrested on Sunday, December 14th after Nebraska State Patrol found out about the deal. The police said that during the week of the 8th, Ames had answered an online ad offering an Xbox for sale in the Charon area. Ames texted the seller saying that he didn’t have any money but would be willing to trade for the illicit substances. While this kind of trade may have worked in a deal with a close friend, the person that Ames was talking to happened to be an officer of the Nebraska State Patrol.

Working with WING Drug Task Force and the Chadron police, NPS began an investigation and set up a meeting place where the supposed deal was supposed to go down. The buyers were to meet the seller in a parking lot in Chadron. The couple was taken in to custody without trouble after the police intercepted them giving the trooper six grams of weed and two mushrooms in exchange for the Xbox. At the time of the deal, the couple had three children with them, ages two, four, and six. They were placed in protective custody when the couple was arrested.

Ames was sent to the Dawes County Jail on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, child abuse, and manufacturing a controlled substance. Anges was also put in Dawes County Jail on charges of aiding and abetting the consummation of a felony, manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and child abuse.

Lesson? Don’t make deals to exchange illegal substances for game systems on the internet. And keep children away from any substances that may be considered dangerous to their welfare. The world of marijuana should be safe and content and should absolutely never put a child in danger.

Yoga has to be one of the most relaxing activities that one can indulge in. You feel good, you end up looking good if you keep up, and it’s a good way to exercise if you don’t have a lot of space available. Many people have debated the effect of marijuana on yoga practice and in a small South of Market studio, the owners have decided to really give it a try.

Ganja Yoga adds cannabis to the yoga experience in order to bring one’s practice to a state of severely heightened spiritual consciousness that may not have been reached without the use of the plant. During the classes, instructor Dee Dussault, tells her students how to achieve various poses, how to keep their breathing deep, and to take a hit off of their joint or vape whenever they feel it necessary.

The combination of yoga and cannabis has been around for thousands of years. Back then, ancient yogis costumed Bhang, which was a beverage made from the flowers of the cannabis plant, as well as charas (also known as hashish) as part of their daily asanas and meditation rituals. Several students in Dussault’s class say that they would be getting stoned before the classes anyway so having a place to do so comfortably and openly is extremely beneficial.

Even though the act of physically smoking marijuana has some health experts on the fence about the plant, many are starting to recognize that the cannabinoids in marijuana have powerful properties that are very beneficial to health. The cannabinoid THC has been associated with the reduction of glaucoma severity, controlling nausea in cancer patients, and relieving extreme pain. Additionally, there are some scientists that have been studying the effect of CBD on slowing down the growth of cancerous tumors.

Most people these days are aware of the fact that marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 substance. This means that the government deems it as dangerous as ecstasy, LSD, and heroin. The DEA says that these Schedule 1 substances have “a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological or physical dependance.” But while most people are only a danger to their refrigerators when stoned and can quit at any time, there’s still little evidence as to why the government says weed is so bad. Why hasn’t science disproved them?

The main reason is that since the government says cannabis is a Schedule 1 substance, only limited research can be done on the plant. From long term effects to what THC does to developing brains, science would love to cover what the cannabis plant does. But with the government throwing people in jail for simply possessing the plant, science doesn’t have the legal right to research this potentially life saving plant.

Even though the research can’t really be done, many scientists believe that the DEA is wrong to classify the plant as such a hard drug. The DEA also continues to uphold the idea that marijuana doesn’t have any medicinal qualities but yet the plant has been shown to help to fight cancer, glaucoma, and other progressive diseases as well as more common afflictions such as anxiety and depression. The unfortunate part of this situation is that this is a never ending circle. Since science can’t research marijuana in depth, they cannot present data to reclassify the plant. The DEA won’t reclassify without rock hard proof.

Another negative effect of the Schedule 1 is that any state that legalizes cannabis for any reason is technically violating the federal law. Even though the Department of Justice released the Cole memo in 2013, stating that the federal government would leave marijuana states alone to enforce their own policies, dispensaries and grow operations are still raided on a daily basis. Not only that but banks are able to refuse service to marijuana businesses because the federal law says that the money is illegal.